Hinnom
Widely regarded as one of the most terrifying places in the Trifecta, the Hinnom Valley Corrections Facility is a massive independent prison complex built wholly from old, intact Federation technology, in a valley well protected from storm and sleet. Almost every nation in the system sends their worst criminal scum- along with a healthy number of political dissidents and other undesirables- to the HVCF, and no questions are asked. To say that the living conditions are brutal would be an understatement. Even the local wildlife, the Dragons, and the Goblinoids avoid the place; some for fear of becoming part of the Facility's prison population, others for fear of being added to the Facility's 'collections', as it's called. The HVCF is run by a secretive, almost cult-like group of shadowy overseers known only as the Wardens. Within these walls, their word is the absolute law- their identities even now remain completely unknown, from numbers to ages to races to even genders. They are thankfully (though whether it's something to be thankful for is a matter of opinion) lax on proclamations, and the prison has very few real rules. There are no bars or individual cells, no guards or automated defenses to keep the prisoners in; only blocks separated by thin wall of easily repaired plaster and simple wooden doors, and to keep the prisoners in are impossibly high walls almost half a mile tall made of four foot thick solid ceramcrete, which are often slick from snow and rain. And this is just what people on the outside can see, all sorts of high tech tricks and traps are hidden within, never to be seen by anyone but the permanent residents. This does a wondrous job of keeping people from getting out, as do the only two established rules of "don't get caught trying to escape" and "when the Wardens speak, you listen." This has created an extremely savage atmosphere and culture of the inmates, it's less of an orderly internment facility and more of a madhouse where the strong rule and the weak submit in fear. But this is not the true horror of the Facility. That comes in the form of the Wardens' little games, their social experiments which have a tendency to leave inmates dead or traumatized for life, which are the reasons why people believe they are either soulless or barking mad. At random intervals the Wardens demand that the inmates take part in their experiments, and all are expected to follow the rules of the game to the letter. Failure to comply is met with strict punishments not for a single individual but for the entire block which they live in, which often leads to further death either from the punishment itself or other inmates banding together to punish the transgressor who brough additional, unnecessary suffering upon them all. The punishments are almost as diverse as the experiments themselves. There are simply too many scenarios which have been run for there to be a comprehensive list made. It's the sort of place that's so terrible mothers don't even use it as an example for frightening misbehaving children into straightening up. Those pitiful few who have escaped describe the facility as a place which is like a freight train designed to run over the mind and grind up the soul. The question is often begged, why does anyone continue to use the Facility? The answer is simple: it's the perfect prison. Every nation has people it needs to get rid of without execution because they are socially, religiously, legally, or politically inconvenient. The HVCF is the only place which will take anyone, no questions asked, and asks for no money in exchange for housing prisoners, only tools and seeds necessary to cultivate their own food and clean their own water. In its five hundred year history, the Facility has only had three successful escape attempts. Two of these were done by specially trained wizards who had been sent in as spies for the sole purpose of discovering as much as they could about the Wardens, and the third was a reformed serial killer who spent a week climbing the wall and nearly died of starvation and thirst. And that is the only good thing about the Facility- the escape attempts have become the stuff of legend, providing inmates and those who are likely to become inmates some modicum of hope. It's no small secret that anyone who successfully escapes and makes it to Paradise City is promised a pardon and second chance at life by Mr. Cartwright personally. But that doesn't change that most people consider Hinnom worse than the Hells; at least in the pits, only the guilty are made to suffer so horribly for their crimes. Liyun Peaks Back to Main Page